Let me preface this post by saying how grateful we are that we still have income coming in and can afford to buy pretty much the same grocery items we have always purchased. I know so many have been laid off or furloughed and are having to rely on food banks to feed their families. I don't mean for this to be complaining, but a good representation of what meal planning, prep and maintenance was like during the pandemic. OK, maybe it is complaining a little. But know I am complaining with gratitude for food on our table.
I think the most time-consuming thing for me to this point has been dealing with our food. What we need to order, when it can be delivered, which things are out of stock when it ships, adding those things to a new order, and planning ahead because the order can't be delivered for 3-4 days.
Then you have the issue of quarantining non-perishables (first in the garage, now in pockets of the kitchen because the weather has turned warmer). Keeping track of what we have on order but isn't delivered yet, what has arrived but is in food quarantine, and which pile came in what day takes up a lot of time during the day.
And...until this week I've been doing some serious washing and disinfecting of perishables with sturdy enough packaging, or emptying others like meat and produce into their own storage baggie and throwing away the store's, etc... This takes me a long time. I think I've seen enough on reputable sites now, though, that I can safely bring most groceries out of the grocery store bags and put them right in the fridge/freezer without all the disinfecting because the chances of getting the virus this way is very low.
Now that we have dealt with bringing the food inside, next there is meal planning. It takes me a good 2 hours on the weekend to inventory what we have to use up for the week, proteins, fruits and veggies, breads and grains, dairy, and jot down anything else I want to make sure to use up and not throw away. Then I come up with dinners and some lunches to make the most of our grocery dollar and not waste anything. In all honesty this is something I did weekly before all of this started, but I'm even more determined about it now. I also am trying to lower our weekly grocery bill by not stocking pantry items ahead of time, and only buying one type of chip or bread or whatever, not multiple because of people having their favorites.
On one hand it's been really nice to have time to cook so much for my family. I've been able to try some new recipes, and we've been baking something once a week to have for breakfast. Yummmmm. But when it gets to be all three meals, every day for now 6 weeks, it becomes more of a burden. I'm going to have the boys help me more. I've been inspired seeing parents having their kids learn all types of life skills during this thing and it's time for mine to join in. Laundry, more house cleaning, even spring cleaning cleaning, and cooking. It's only fair that since they eat the most in this house that they chip in more.
Do we out at all, you may be asking. We eat out once a week on Saturdays. So far it's always been dinner but I may crack and have to have a La Rueda breakfast soon. We've been good about only going to small, family-owned and local restaurants: Italy Pasta and Pizza, La Rueda, Catfish Sam's, Braums (a chain, but only in the South), Burger Box. We wanted to add Dixie House to this list but they apparently had to close which makes me sad for the employees. We also had our favorite place to get coffee, CoffeeFolk (food trailer) reopen on Thurs - Sun and we've been getting coffees on Fridays and Sundays. They didn't come out and require everyone to wear masks and socially distance, maybe because everyone is outdoors. But I'm sure they just hoped people would fall in line and do the right thing on their own. But sadly, last Friday I drove up and saw a big crowd of college-age guys (7 or 8?) gathered right at the entrance where I would have to walk by to order. None of them wearing masks. Seriously? So I turned around and went home. Their loss. And ours, we LOVE their coffee so much we very rarely went to Starbucks before the pandemic and haven't been once since it started.
When we bring food home we take containers out of the bag in the garage, then I empty the container onto a plate. We heat it up in the microwave for a minute or so. And be sure to immediately throw away all the containers. AND that food always tastes so darn good! I'm a pretty good cook but we can all appreciate restaurant food a little more now.
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